Home

Steamboat Springs — The Routt County Child Support Enforcement Program has a few new collection tools in its arsenal, but without an enforcement case, payments aren't going to come on their own.

Child Support Technician Carolyn Gibson said she learned firsthand how effective child support enforcement programs can be - if they use the proper diligence.

Gibson began work at the Routt County office in September 2006. She had not been receiving child support payments from an ex-husband, and said he was behind in payments.

"I was expecting some miraculous payment to come my way, some nonvoluntary payment, and it didn't," she said. "It didn't happen because I hadn't opened a case."

Since she opened the case, she has been able to use wage garnishments, tax garnishments and other tools to collect money owed.

Assisted by computer programs and automated payment systems, local child support technicians are able to use statewide and nationwide systems to locate, contact and ultimately collect money from delinquent parents.

The Child Support Enforcement Program, run through the Department of Human Services, collected $1,545,536 from January to the end of November 2008 in Routt County.

That number is a slight decrease from 2007, partly because more long-term cases were paid off because of the new tools, said technician Mariah Poole.

That collection represents 466 cases to the end of November in 2008.

The organization collected more than $30 million in child support payments statewide during 2007.

One of the biggest changes in how money is collected came from a Colorado law, enacted in October 2006, allowing child support technicians to garnish tax refunds and money from the national stimulus payment.

"That has made a real significant change on our older cases," Gibson said. "That's a huge enforcement remedy."

Even so, the economic recession has hit Routt County child support figures in recent months, Gibson said.

"Especially over these past several months when these construction businesses have screeched to a halt," she said.

In a presentation to Routt County Commissioners, Poole explained the process parents receiving support should follow.

The first step is to create an application with the Child Support Enforcement Program, either through their Web site at www.childsupport.state.co.us or at the program's office, 135 Sixth St. There is a $20 charge for the application. Once that is filed, the technicians get to work.

After paternity is established and a collection order is made, the parents must make monthly support payments.

"When payment is not made consistently, the enforcement process begins," Poole told the Commissioners.

The child support technicians have access to federal case registry and access to the state department of new hires. Employers in Colorado are required to report new, contract or full-time employees hired, making it easier for Poole and other technicians to find parents and collect garnishment.

"I have a feeling there are a lot more people out there who could use child support enforcement," Gibson said.

Remedies for delinquent payments include wage withholding, driver's license suspension, recreational license suspension, professional and occupational license suspension, seizure of bank accounts, intercepting IRS and state tax refunds, offset to worker's compensation and unemployment benefits, Department of Corrections liens, interception of lottery and gambling winnings and vendor payments for work done with the state of Colorado, Poole wrote.

If all else fails, the technicians also can take the case to court.